chocolate – Sapphires in Paradise

Hello summertime. Goodbye real life.

It has been so invigorating relaxing this past week. I have set aside this week, the first week of my summer, to doing what I want. This means not touching my tons of AP summer homework stacked up on my desk and neglecting studying for the SAT’s for just this week. I really wanted to destress and have time for doing the things that I love the most. Anyways, with that being said, this week I have had plenty of time to catch up with old friends, shop, and have a spa day… something that I needed very much after the hectic month of May. How has everyone else been doing?

With that being said, let me get into my June favorites.

Lately, I have been loving the 80s fashion trends. I had such a fun shopping day with my mother on Monday and I picked up a few 80s inspired things from my favorite shop, ZARA.

Here’s a mini haul as to what I purchased, and I can honestly say that they are my current fashion favorites

Bomber Jacket

Don’t hang clothing off of chandeliers , not a very good idea, but you got to do what you got to do for the blog, right? Anyways, what i particularly love about this jacket is that it has the cute green stripe through the sleeves and also the “Don’t grow up” message on the back of the jacket adds extra flair to it. I love the color scheme of the jacket and it can easily be paired with a simple crop top and some jeans. It can also be worn with a light colored dress and I wore this with my baby blue halter maxi dress.

2. Simple tops

I got this sparkly grey crop top with patches on it. Patches were a major trend from the 90s and they are in right now. The patches on this top make it more interesting and fun. I also bought this peachy pink top and I love the material of it and the contrast with the white.

Also, in this shopping trip, I went to Topshop , and picked up some ballerina-esque black tie up heels. They are my ultimate favorite heels right now. I literally could not resist them. I have been loving the Ballerina trends right now from tie up heels/sandals to wrap tops. This trend is by far my favorite.

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Beauty favorites:

I have been loving the Tarte Rainforest of the Sea Aquacealer Concealer. This is the best concealer of all time. With dark circles caused by finals and stress, this concealer has been my go to. A little tiny bit goes a long way to cover up the darkness under my eyes and brighten them immediately. Although this is not a permanent solution to getting rid of dark circles, this concealer does an excellent job in concealing them. Definitely worth it. I got mine from Sephora.

2. My second favorite of this month has been the Bath and Body Works Italian Citrus Sun Body lotion. It has a sweet and citrusy scent to it which makes it smell divine. I can’t get enough of this flavor. I have also been loving the perfume , Chance by Chanel, that I recently got. It has an energetic and floral scent which I love.

3. My last but most favorite, beauty favorite of June is the Rosewater Aromatherapy Mist from Target and the California Rose Sea Salt Souffle from Whole foods. The Sea Salt Souffle is a 2 in 1 bath soak and body scrub. It has dried rose petals in it and smells like a rose garden which is incredible to bathe in. The aromatherapy mist is a great facial toner and I love spritzing it all over my body, face, and hair after I shower . Its a great addition to your post-shower routine before putting on lotion. Rose water is an excellent toner and keeps you hydrated.

Miscellaneous Favorites:

Chocolate covered Stawberries are the best fruit and chocolate combination there is. I have been making them so often this month and they are my favorite thing to snack on. It is so simple and easy to make all you have to do is melt some semisweet chocolate chips in a double boiler ( a pot filled halfway with water, boiled, and then place a stove proof bowl on top of the pot and let the heat of the water underneath melt the chocolate. Make sure the bowl doesn’t touch the water or you can just melt the chocolate in the microwave in 30 second intervals until the chocolate melts). It is super easy to make these. Or if you are really lazy, you can always by them from Godiva because Godiva is the best Chocolatier there is. There truffles are my absolute favorite.

2. Room DIY. My cousin got me this cute wooden heart for my room. It was blank and I decided to paint over it in some shades of emerald green and paint the word “live” on it in a cursive font. This has been my favorite room decor item so far and it is so easy to do yet so cute.

That sums up my favorites of the month, so far, considering its only been half the month. Hope you all have an adventurous summer filled with happiness and positivity.

XOXO,

Shiza

This Valentines Day inspired recipe is a sweet, thoughtful gift for your loved ones. It requires no special ingredients or tools, and is simply scrumptious. My friend Saki decided to teach me how she makes these delicious bites and we tested out the recipe yesterday and were pleased with how it turned out.

What you need:
1) A Container of store-bought frosting any flavor you prefer. I used vanilla.
2) Yellow boxed cake mix & the ingredients the box calls for, in order to prepare the cake. (mine called for 3 eggs, water,& oil)
3) Semi-sweet chocolate chips.
4) Cake Pop sticks ( if you cant find them, just cut wooden skewers in half)

Directions:
1) Bake cake according to package. I simply mixed all of the wet ingredients with the dry and baked the cake for 35 minutes in a 350 degree Fahrenheit oven.
2) Cool cake for about an hour ( its takes waaaaay less time if you cool it in the fridge).
3) Break the cooled cake into small crumbs.
4)Mix the frosting into the crumbled cake. Add enough so that the mixture is not too wet nor too dry. Make sure there is enough frosting in the mixture in order to form cake balls. Do not add too much frosting or it will cause the cake balls to break.
6)Form meatball sized balls. You can use an ice cream scoop in order to obtain uniform sized cakepops. I simply just estimated the size of each cake pop.
7) Insert the sticks into the center of the cake pops. Place the cake pops in the freezer for 10-15 minutes so that they can harden.
8) Melt chocolate chips over a double broiler or in intervals of 30 sec in the microwave until the chocolate has completely melted. You can use candy melts if you want a colorful coating on your cake pop.
9) Coat each cake pop in the melted chocolate. You can top the coated cake pops with festive sprinkles for another added touch.Allow it to cool on a tray in the fridge.